Join Pastor Jack Hibbs in this special Christmas series ‘His Return’ as we delve into the prophecies and promises of Jesus Christ’s return. Through a deep exploration of biblical texts, Pastor Jack unravels the profound connections between the Old Testament and the birth of Christ, emphasizing the ongoing significance of these events in our lives today. This episode sheds light on how the promise of redemption was established from the very beginning and what it means for believers awaiting His return.
As I said earlier, the devil is like a lion roaming about. I don’t think a lion announces his arrival. You know, a lion roars. Even the book of Proverbs tells us that a lion roars after it catches its prey.
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This is Real Life. Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I’m David Jay, thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God’s Word, the Bible.
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Your week is packed. You’re running on empty, and sometimes Sunday already feels like a distant memory by Wednesday. That’s exactly why real-life devotions exist. Each week, Pastor Jack Hibbs brings you a short but powerful moment in God’s Word designed to encourage, equip, and refocus your heart. It’s not another podcast or a long sermon. It’s a few meaningful minutes that meet you right where you are. Whether you’re on a commute, going for a walk, or you just need a reset in the middle of your day, Real Life Devotions are ready when you are. Fresh encouragement straight from the scripture. And it’s all just one click away. Check out the newest devotion now at jackhibbs.com. That’s jackhibbs.com. Your place for real faith, real encouragement, and real life. That’s Real Life Devotions at jackhibbs.com.
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on today’s edition of Real Life Radio. We’re taking a break from 1 Samuel to bring you a very special Christmas series called His Return. You know, the return of Jesus is a promise from God, and it goes back much further than we thought. Genesis 3.15 of the Old Testament is the very first Christmas verse. God’s redemption plan actually begins right here, after Adam and Eve sinned in the garden and their relationship with God was broken. You see, the Christmas message is deeply prophetic and rooted in God’s great plan to redeem us. From the very beginning, like Adam and Eve, our guilt and need for redemption is very real. And Christ coming to Earth, an actual event, made the way for God to save us. So today in this special Christmas message, Pastor Jack teaches us that Jesus entered the world at the worst of times, bringing hope and the promise of salvation. And it’s the same for the world we live in today. The promise of Christ and his return for his church at a time when evil is on the rise and hope is fading. Now with his very special Christmas series called His Return Part 2, here’s pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.
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Well, you can be seated for now, but do open your Bibles, if you would, to really a montage of Scripture. We are now part two of a three-part series titled His Return. And I’m curious, just to help me out, please, how many of you were not here last week? Don’t worry about it. We’re not going to have a test. I just need to know how much I need to… So not enough of you to reveal, that’s the deal. So get the study from last week. We’re approaching this in a different way, the Christmas series. We annually do a Christmas series, and this year it’s different than normal. And we’re taking what I would consider, with all due respect, and I do mean this regarding me saying this, that I expect, you guys are students of the Bible. I expect you guys to know more than the average churchgoer. And that’s not putting down any other church. Right? It’s just that we spend a lot of time in the Bible here. And I’m expecting and assuming that a deep dive into why there is a Christmas is good for us, that we can be reminded if we don’t already know. And we can also formulate and articulate arguments, I mean that in a loving way, arguments for those that we’ll be coming in contact with during this time. celebration this Christmas season. That is, that we’d be able to challenge them as to why we’re even participating in Christmas in the first place. Now, technically, as a believer, we participate in Christmas every single day. Amen. As believers, don’t we? So we’re looking at his return. This is our second study. We laid the foundation of the fact. And remember, I’m going to push it all the way through. And that is the Christmas account is an account of actual events. The Christmas event is not a storied event. It’s not a story. It’s not the greatest story ever told. It’s the greatest account of an event ever recorded. And so we wanna challenge the world right now with that. We saw last time, and I’m not gonna go through all of it, but we learned that there’s an overriding theme, and you can go about and pick many theme verses or chapters of the Bible to back up Christmas, but for me, this is the one that carries the greatest punch. In fact, it’s a dual hit from John and from Genesis, as you might remember. In John 1, the Bible tells us, now remember, in light of Christmas, in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning. That is, of all the physical created universe, and that also includes created beings, such as angels. He was with God and all things were made through him and without him, nothing was made that was made. Well, who is this word? Who is this one that is God? Verse 14, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory. The glory is of the only begotten of the father. full of grace and truth, and all God’s people said to that, amen. And then we jump on over to Genesis chapter three, verse 15. Do you remember this? I was quite happy with your response, by the way, to discover, you came up to me after service and said, I never thought about that before. That Genesis 3.15 is not only a soteriological verse, big word, meaning the first verse given in the Bible that God promises to redeem back mankind out of his sin, amen. But it’s also the first eschatological verse, meaning it’s the first prophecy in the Bible. And what’s the prophecy given? It’s not only redemption. How did redemption come? Redemption came to us in Bethlehem. A little baby was born. What an unassuming advent of God’s great plan to break the bonds of Satan and sin to come into the world himself. I’m so glad that God didn’t send an angel. Aren’t you? An angel wasn’t born in Bethlehem. God was born in the flesh in Bethlehem. Absolutely awesome. How do we know that? Genesis 3 verse 15. Remember the Lord is speaking after the fall and you can see them lined up right there. There’s the serpent that’s possessed by Satan, there’s Adam and there’s Eve. And the Bible there, as God speaks, says, and I, that is the Lord will put enmity, and you can almost see the Lord pointing at the serpent, between you and the woman. He’s referencing Eve, but Eve’s offspring. And between your seed and her seed, he shall bruise your head. That is the seed that is coming from a woman. will crush Satan’s head and Satan will crush his heel. Satan will inflict pain upon the life of the Messiah coming into the world, but the Messiah’s work would crush the head, the authority, the domain, the power of the devil himself. And we need to remember that, church, because Satan, according to the Bible, is a judged foe. He’s an adversary, the Bible says, who goes about seeking whom he may devour. And none of us are exempt from this. He goes around seeing what he can do to create mischief in your life. And so listen, basically two things. There are those who are protected by the power of God, and Satan will come and attack, and that is for our development. God will use Satan to develop his children. We know this from the book of Job, by the way. But then there’s also the fact that those who are not Christians, they’re open game. For the tyrannical deceptions of Satan. One more before we get going is 1 John. Same John, this is the same John that wrote the Gospel of John. In 1 John chapter one, it says, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, listen to this, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled. John is saying, I touch the word of God. Concerning the word of life, the life was manifested and we have seen and bear witness and declare to you that eternal life, which was with the father and was manifest to us. We got to talk to him. We got to see him eat. We ate with him. We touched him. We held his hand. We could hear his voice. Can you imagine, what did the voice of Jesus sound like? I mean, I’m assuming that it sounded like any common voice. I don’t think it was like, hi John, this is Jesus. I don’t think he sounded like some television preacher. I think he sounded kind of normal, but everybody’s got a signature voice of their own. I would have loved to have heard his voice, but we don’t have to wait too long. We’re going to hear his voice. In fact, the voice that we’re listening for is come up here. And I hope that happens today. I hope that happens right now. I need it to happen today. How about that? Verse three says that which we have seen and which we have heard and declared to you that you also may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ and these things we write to you that your joy may be full. which is why we look, number one, at the promise of his return. We were blessed by that. Number two, last week we saw the purpose of his return. And thirdly, last week we saw the proclamation of his return. And in every one of the events, and it’s the theme that undergirds this entire series, is that God not only announced in Genesis that he was going to return to redeem mankind, and he came, born in Bethlehem, we call it Christmas, But all along the way, there’s always this returning of God back to the world, frankly, the world that he loves. Think about this. The world has fallen and it hates him. But you’re in this world. Thus he loves you. But he’s also going to redeem the world. He’s not going to flush it down the celestial toilet. He’s going to redeem it. And that’s quite awesome. Number four in our study. Number four, write it down, here we go. His return is this. There’s an environment to his return. The environment of his return. So what do you mean by that? Well number one, write this down. Amos chapter three, verse seven. This is awesome. You guys listening? Amos 3, seven says, surely the Lord God does nothing unless he reveals his secret to his servants, the prophets. Now that’s a huge statement, but you have to understand something, carefully everybody, say wait a minute, does that mean God is gonna tell us everything before it happens? No, this is very, very interesting doctrine regarding the nature of God, and you might wanna write it down, and that is called the predictive nature of God, predictive. God allows himself to be known very well in certain areas, There are areas of God’s revelation to us that we know somewhat and then there’s areas that God has reserved and it’s the bulk of his revelation and that is gonna be eternity in heaven with him discovering it. You say, what do you mean by this? We mean that God has revealed enough in the word of God for you to know him, to repent of your sins, to accept him as Lord and Savior, and to have him as your guide through life. And when the end of life comes or where the trumpet goes, you go up and you see him and everything that you and I need in this life is in this book. But John said, if I were to write down everything concerning Christ, there’s not enough books in the world to contain his very person and character. What he says and what he’s going to say. The predictive nature of God, but it goes deeper. So for example, in the book of Romans 11, verses 33 to 34, you can just reference the verse, it’s not gonna be on the screens. The Bible tells us there, who has known the mind of the Lord? See, he’s challenging us. I’m predictive. That is to the things that I’ve revealed. See, Jack, help me out. What God has revealed, he will do. You can bank on him. That’s the predictive nature of God. God is one who we don’t know what he’s gonna do next, but we know this, it will be in line with his word, the Bible. This is important. In 1 Corinthians 2, 16, the Bible says, who has known the mind of God that can instruct him? We can’t. We try. Hey, God, let me tell you how to do it. That doesn’t work. But we are talking about the predictive patterns of God in the Bible. And from Genesis, I love saying what I’m about to say. From Genesis to Revelation, it’s all about redemption. It’s all about the Messiah Savior who purchases redemption. And it’s all about him keeping his word. And that is awesome.
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You’re listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs. You know, to hear more episodes and maybe catch up in the series, just go to jackhibbs.com. That’s jackhibbs.com. And for now, let’s get back to our teaching. Once again, here’s Pastor Jack.
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So listen, there’s conditions. I’m gonna get into the breakdown to this point, but the environment of his return, mark this down if you would. It’s Matthew chapter four, verse 13. Matthew 4, 13, and leaving Nazareth, he, Jesus, came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is by the sea in the regions of Zebulun and Naphtali. That it might be fulfilled which was spoken of by Isaiah the prophet, saying, Notice, Matthew was saying this, regarding the prophet Isaiah. And both attribute this to the Messiah. What is Matthew talking about? Why did he say this? And why did he say it like that? Well, Isaiah chapter nine, verse one. We remember this from last week. Isaiah nine, one. By way of the sea, Isaiah says… Beyond the Jordan, in Galilee of the Gentiles, the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them the light has shined or dawned. Church family, in your argument, know this. Christmas is the fulfillment of Isaiah and Matthew. 2,000 years ago, understood that the prophet of Isaiah’s prophecy was being fulfilled. That is admissible in the courtroom. Eyewitness account says this is what I’m going to say about what I just saw. Isaiah’s prophecy was fulfilled. Matthew chapter four, verse 17. From that time, Jesus began to preach. That’s just the next verse out of Matthew. From that time, Jesus began to preach and to say, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Change your mind, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. That’s what you wanna have family do at this Christmas, do you not? Have them change their mind about what it’s all about. I read in the, I don’t want to, I kind of didn’t want to say this, and I definitely didn’t put the headlines up because I didn’t want you to be depressed, but it was either Forbes or one of the things that I read on a weekly basis, it was either The Economist or Forbes or New York Times, I don’t know what it was, but it said there in the headline of the article, it said, enjoy this Christmas because it may be the last as we know it. And it was talking about everything coming together. It was written by a non-believer. It’s talking about everything coming together to basically remove Christmas from the priority that we’ve enjoyed for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years. Meaning the economy, safety, the culture, you name it. Everything is shifting, everything is turning. I highly suggest you grab onto the Bible like never before. Turn off the TV, turn off stuff, and get into the Bible because listen, it’s gonna be a matter of life and death how much you know this Bible of his. Very, very important. So here we go, as we look at this, the environment of his return will be like this, preempted by the rise of evil. Can you write that down? This is what you can talk about over your Christmas turkey with your non-believing friends. Well, the environment of Christ’s return as it was back then, even back from the Garden of Eden is the same today. There’s gonna be a preemptive age whereby evil will be on the rise. Everybody knows this. Your aunt, she knows it. Your dad, your kids are going to be at the table. They already know it. They may not want to admit it, but there’s a rise of evil. And evil, by the way, is getting very swanky. It’s not for this time, but there’s an app that you parents need to know about that is the number one downloaded app now in the world. We’ll talk about it some other day, but you need to make sure that you are monitoring your kid’s stuff or your wife’s stuff or your husband’s stuff. Why? Evil’s on the rise and it gets all dressed up and it looks really great on the surface. Oh, look at this, look at that, and it’s so cute, and it’s so cute for a little bit until the narrative, the real reason, draped, cloaked. As I said earlier, the devil is like a lion roaming about. I don’t think a lion announces his arrival. You know, a lion roars. Even the book of Proverbs tells us that a lion roars after it catches its prey. The lion doesn’t go, here I come. You can’t tell when he’s coming. Or worse yet, worse than a lion would be the lioness. She’s the killer. The guy just sits around, eats stuff, and makes baby lions. She’s the one, and she is just absolute. Well, the Bible says Satan is like a lion. That means he’s like a lion against your children, against your marriage, against your home, against your life, against this church. If there’s anything that’s challenging darkness, the rise of evil will come against it. Just know that. In First Timothy chapter four, verse one. Again, all of this, I’m gonna argue, is all related to Christmas. First Timothy four once says, now the spirit expressly says that in the latter times that some will depart from the faith. Just make sure it’s not you. Giving heed, this is why they depart from the faith. Giving heed to deceiving spirits. In other words, translation, modern day vernacular, stop listening to stupid stuff. Well, I know this guy’s kind of weird, but he teaches the Bible. I just find him interesting. Turn him off. Judge this pulpit and every pulpit and every person by the Bible, friends. You do that, you’ll survive. If not, this is what’s going to happen. You’ll give heat to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron. When your conscience is seared with a hot iron, you no longer have any feeling anymore. Cold-blooded killers of character, of soul, and of body. They can gut somebody as it were and walk away and feel nothing. And I ask you, in the rise of evil in the last days before Christ returns, are we not living in a time like this?
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pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio with his special Christmas series called His Return. Thanks for listening today and Merry Christmas from Pastor Jack and all of us here at Real Life Radio. Our prayer for you this Christmas is that your 2026 is filled with contentment and joy that can only come from knowing Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. Jesus came so that we can have life, and he died on the cross to free us from our guilt and shame. Christ is the reason we celebrate Christmas, and we look forward to his return. It’s given us a lot of joy sharing this Real Life Radio program with you. Thanks for welcoming us into your home for the past year and into your life as well. We’ll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio. This December, Pastor Jack Hibbs is doing something a little different and a lot special. All month long, he’s offering a double-feature Book of the Month, two very powerful resources to help you finish the year strong and step into the next year spiritually grounded. First, Pastor Jack’s annual favorite, the One Year Bible. Every year, lives are changed as people discover how simple and doable it is to read through the entire Word of God within just a few minutes a day. Also, Pastor Jack’s going to include his brand new devotional, Watching Waiting. It’s a 40-day journey designed to help you slow down, look up, and recognize what God is doing in your life. So this December, why would you choose one when you can get both and grow deeper? Visit jackhibbs.com to get your December Book of the Month double feature, the One Year Bible, and Pastor Jack’s brand new devotional, Watching Waiting. They’re available for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com. Again, that’s jackhibbs.com. All right, let’s send a shout out to Gerald because he said, my wife and I were in Connecticut in a hotel. He said, the only thing that was on TV was the left-wing propaganda channels, garbage shows, programs, newscasts, la-di-da-di-da. He said, the closest thing to Christian TV was Golf Channel. Everybody knows that God golfs. He said he figured out how to stream his computer to the TV, and he got to watch a real-life network. Let’s throw a shout-out to Gerald.
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Gerald, I have to agree with you. I mean, TV is just a mess, which Gerald is the reason why God gave us the passion and the ability— To get real life network up and running and your, your comment, Gerald actually is a huge encouragement for the team. And I’m sure it’s an encouragement to all of those that are out there that actually just quietly simply donate to the real life network because it’s, it’s, it’s a hundred percent of you guys know this or not. But it’s a 100% donation-based ministry that keeps that wonderful channel going. And I got to tell you, you guys have been so faithful that we’re growing it. It is getting larger every week. So Gerald, thank you, brother. Very encouraging. God bless you.
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Hey, you know, if you’d like to drop a note of encouragement to Pastor Jack, that’d be awesome. He’d really love to see what you have to say about him and how his ministry’s affected your life. So please do that. Go to the Connect tab at jackhibbs.com. That’s the tab labeled Connect at jackhibbs.com.
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Well, friends, listen, it’s been two years here at the Real Life Network, and God has been so good to us. God put it on our hearts to create a network that would be cancel-free, censorship-free, uncompromising, so that we could bring the truth to anyone, anywhere. God has been so good to us these last two years, everybody, and we want to thank all of you. So today, we are amazed that over 70 million people minutes of biblical worldview truth has been on our programming and viewed by you, the audience, on The Real Life Network. Every piece of our content on The Real Life Network is rooted in God’s Word so that it’s safe, it’s secure. So listen, spread the word with us, will you? Encourage friends and family to join The Real Life Network and that we might grow together this community of believers all around the world.
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So if you haven’t checked it out already, that’s The Real Life Network, streaming the best in Christian and conservative content. Sign up and start streaming today for free at reallifenetwork.com. That’s reallifenetwork.com. This program is made possible by the generous contributions of you, our listeners. Visit us at jackhibbs.com. That’s jackhibbs.com. Until next time, Pastor Jack Hibbs and all of us here at Real Life Radio wish for you solid and steady growth in Christ and in His Word. We’ll see you next time here on Real Life Radio.
